Little Pitcher-man
On a pantry shelf there once lived a funny squatty-looking pitcher-man. His cap was brown and that was the top of the pitcher. His coat was yellow and his vest green.
He was round and fat, as well as squatty, and his legs were short. He wore brown trousers (what there was of them) and white stockings and black shoes.
But the face under the cap was what everyone noticed most; it was always laughing. Oh, I forgot to say that his hands held on to his sides as if he feared he would burst with laughing so hard.
One day there came to the pantry to live a new dish, and when it saw the Pitcher-man it asked another dish standing by why the Pitcher-man was always laughing.
"I do not know," replied the other dish, "but he never does anything but laugh. I have never thought to ask why."
So the new dish waited until it was all quiet in the pantry at night, and then it asked the Pitcher-man why he laughed all the time.
"Oh dear! I have to laugh every time I think of it," answered the Pitcher-man. "No one has ever asked me why I laughed before, and I do not know that I can stop long enough to tell you why."
But all the other dishes gathered about him and begged him to tell his story, and at last he managed to stop laughing and talk.